Anbu (Earth-1529)
The Anbu are covert operatives of highly powerful and skilled shinobi who are dispatched by their village leaders to perform S-rank and A-rank missions, which range from espionage, reconnaissance, and assassination. There are no true ranks within the Anbu, with team leardership and hierarchy being solely based on personal merit and experience. Team leaders are known as squad leaders, and consist of high-profile Jonin. Overview Because of the highly sensitive missions undertaken by the Anbu, an individual's personality determines their eligibility to join the force, making many skilled shinobi whose personalities do not match that of the organization to be rejected desbite their abilities. As early as their bending academies, accomplished children are scouted to join the Anbu in the future. During recruitment, shinobi are hand-picked by the hidden village's respective Kage for their individual capabilities and special skills, either being their strategic intelligence, a particular strong bending, or both. Age, background, gender, or previous rank bear no significance into the Kage's decision. As per Konohagakure culture and tradition, shinobi cannot join the Anbu until they are at least 13 years old with rare exceptions, such as was the case of Itachi Uchiha, who was conscripted at age 11. Once they join the force, these young shinobi undergo a tiring training process which include the study of the human body, and later start wearing masks to conceal their identities, leading them to take upon code names to identify each other. Anbu members always carry classified and important missions either inside their own hidden village or in their nation, although there do exist cases where Anbu shinobi were sent for assassination missions in foreign nations. Their assignments consists of several A-rank and even S-rank missions, such as assassination, tracking, infiltration, surveillance, reconnaissance, and espionage. Duo to the sensitive and classified nature of Anbu's assignments, their members are expected to destroy their own bodies if they become too badly injured during a mission so that they cannot be captured by the enemy. Kirigakure has its own special branch of Anbu operatives, known as the Hunter-Nin. These excepionally skilled benders track down and kill missing-nin from Kiri, retrieving their head in the end as proof of the missing-nin's death. They also dispose the rest of the body in order to hide any sensitive information the defector could carry about their village and nation. While Anbu operatives usually operate in squads of four, taking orders from a superior, some elite Anbu are known to be handpicked by their Kage to serve as their "eyes and ears". As such, all orders these hand-picked Anbu soldiers receive come directly from the Kage, who are the only people they aswner to. Anbu's men and women dislike letting others known about their bending abilities, and as such, most inhabitants of a hidden village are unaware of who is an Anbu and who isn't. In Konoha, Anbu make up the military force of the village alongside the Konoha Military Police. Duo to the Anbu's importance to the operations of the hidden village, they cannot be arrested without a warrant. Konohagakure also held a special branch of the Anbu known as Root. Led by Danzou Shimura, Root acted as the village's secret police, maintaining public order from the underground while using child soldiers in the name of peace. Its members, taken from their families at age 7, were conscripted into the force, and were trained to abandon their emotions to follow Danzou's will without questioning. Uniform Most Anbu operatives wear masks to conceal their identities. These masks are stylized in the form of an animal's face, and can be customized by the Anbu, with some even opting to wear demonic masks. Full Anbu clothing and mark conventions vary from village to village; Kirigakure Anbu wear masks with slits for eye-holes and the symbol of the village etched into the forehead, which may or may not have patterns. Sunagakure Anbu wear turbans to cover the lower halves of their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. An Anbu regiment from Kusagakure known as the Prajna Group wear porcelain masks modelled to resemble an oni. All Anbu wear standard flak jackets; in Konohagakure, these consist of black clothing, with the flak jacket itself being grey, supported by metal arm guards and gloves, sandals with spikes for traveling in rocky and mountainous regions, pouches in their back-waist, and a signature spiral tattoo on their shoulder. Powerful Anbu operatives wear black cloaks over their uniforms, with squad leaders using white cloaks. Most Anbu carry swords as their weapon of choice. Notable Anbu *Ao *Assassin captain *Fu Yamanaka *Itachi Uchiha *Kakashi Hatake *Nono Yakushi *Sai *Shin *Terai *Torune Aburame *Tsurugi *Yamato Category:Earth-1529 Category:Groups of Earth-1529 Category:Organizations of Earth-1529 Category:Ranks and titles (Earth-1529)